The present invention relates to a container, specifically for the delivery of pizza, and to a related method.
There has developed in recent years a system for marketing pizza in which pizza is delivered from the producer of the pizza, such as a pizza parlor, to the consumer. Delivery is typically made in an automobile with one or more pizzas in individual boxes carried by the delivery person in the automobile.
Pizzas are provided in paperboard boxes which, while not hermetically sealed, nevertheless retain in the box and in the pizza a substantial amount of moisture. The pizza itself will be understood to contain a substantial amount of moisture, and when cooked, some moisture is driven out of the pizza by the heat therein. The component of the pizza with the greatest moisture content is the tomato sauce, with certain toppings also having relatively high moisture content. In contrast, the dough forming a part of the pizza, while containing some moisture, has considerably less moisture content immediately after baking of the pizza. During transportation of the hot pizza, the sauce and other high-water content components emit moisture, which is substantially trapped within the box in which the pizza is delivered, and this moisture is absorbed, at least in part, by the pizza dough, now in the form of a baked crust. Continued exposure of the pizza dough or crust to the emitted moisture results in the crust absorbing emitted moisture, so that it tends to become soggy, being no longer in the crisp state it was in after baking. Consequently, when pizza is delivered in the conventional manner, within the paperboard boxes, it often is delivered with the crust having become soggy, and is substantially different in texture and taste appeal from the state it was in when removed from the oven.
Another factor tending to unsatisfactorily affect the condition of the pizza is the addition of moisture to the bottom of the box from the pizza. The moisture tends to soak the bottom of the paperboard pizza box, in some cases resulting in adherence of the pizza crust to the box bottOm, and with the risk of imparting a "cardboard" taste to the pizza.